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Inside the Box:
The Jays outscored Providence 30-18 in the paint, were even 9 to 9 on the offensive glass…and lost by 17. How is that possible?
Specifically, Creighton made just 37.1% of their shots, the second-worst rate in any game this season (only their 36.8% performance in a win over Oklahoma was worse). Meanwhile, Providence made 60% from three-point range after shooting 29.2% in Big East games prior to Wednesday. They were a scorching 8-of-10 in the second half. And over the final 15 minutes of the game, Providence made 12-of-17 from the floor while Creighton was just 5-of-24.
“I wish we’d have played a little bit better,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio interview, “but when Providence shoots 60% from the three-point line they’re not just going to beat us they’re going to beat everybody.”
The Friars’ shooting even surprised Providence followers.
CU got zero points from their bench, the first time since February 24, 1986 that their bench has been held scoreless in a game. NINETEEN-EIGHTY SIX, nearly 1,100 games ago. Wow.
More generally, poor outside shooting in a game officiated fairly loosely against a physical opponent is a recipe for a bad night. There were just 20 combined fouls called in the game. It was called consistently, so there’s no complaints to be made, it’s simply an observation. Creighton got away with a lot more physicality and bruising than they’re used to, too. But Providence is better suited for that style of game, and they thrived in it.
Individually, CU’s big three of Mitch Ballock, Ty-Shon Alexander and Marcus Zegarowski were 1-of-13 from downtown in the second half and combined to shoot 11-of-38 (28%) and 5-of-23 (21.7%) from three-point range. The Jays can ill afford to have two of their big three with “off” nights at the same time, and when all three struggle, they’re going to have a hard time winning games. Throw in Denzel Mahoney, who was 0-for-5, and their four top offensive weapons were 11-for-46.
Recap:
Four minutes into the second half, Creighton took a 45-39 lead on Christian Bishop’s short jumper in the paint. They were outscored 34-11 the rest of the game, in the worst prolonged stretch of basketball they’ve played since the loss to San Diego State in Las Vegas.
As you’d expect in a run that huge, a lot of things went wrong all at once for the Bluejays. Bishop and Damien Jefferson had combined for 22 points on 15 shots through that point of the game, but coming out of the media timeout both players headed to the bench — Bishop for a breather, Jefferson to get medical attention after being shaken up on a collision in the paint.
Providence switched to a 2-3 zone, and without their two hottest shooters the Jays had three straight one-and-done possessions. Meanwhile, a Friar team that has struggled to make jump shots all year suddenly couldn’t miss. A.J. Reeves hit a pair of threes. Alpha Diallo hit one, too. An 11-0 Providence run in under three minutes gave them a 50-45 lead, and they ran away with the win from there.
“We got the ball into the teeth of their zone the first two possessions after they switched to it,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio interview. “Denzel got two pretty good looks from the elbow and missed them both. Then Marcus missed a pretty good look at a three after that. And then we kind of got paralyzed against it.”
Providence’s 2-3 zone was the same look they employed at the end of the game in Omaha. Creighton had success against it in that game, with one of the game’s biggest shots coming against their zone — Ty-Shon Alexander’s three-pointer that cut the deficit to 74-72.
“We’ve seen it before,” McDermott noted. “We tried rotating different guys in and out of the middle to see if we could get somebody to get us going, but even when we made the right play and got it to the rim, we got shots blocked.”
Nonetheless, old reputations die hard and with Creighton’s struggles against the zone resurfacing, so too did the criticism. Fans openly wondered why teams don’t throw a zone at the Jays every game. The reason is pretty simple: what was true five or six years ago is not true of this current group of Bluejays.
Creighton came into the game with the second-best scoring percentage against zone defenses in the Big East. They had made 45.2% of their shots against zones this season. They had success against Providence’s zone two weeks ago. And they got the looks they wanted on Wednesday night — they simply didn’t make the shots. Here’s a compilation of their possessions against the zone, where you relive the gory details for yourself:
“We had a few 15-footers against the zone that we missed. We had open threes in the corner that we missed. We had backdoors that we missed,” Mitch Ballock said on a postgame radio interview. “If teams want to play us like that the rest of the year we’ll be (good) because we’ll hit those shots moving forward.”
CU was equal parts frustrated and flustered as the half wore on — they couldn’t get a stop, they couldn’t make a basket, and they weren’t getting calls they felt they should have. Against an opponent playing with the sense of urgency that only comes from your back being against the wall, it was too much to overcome.
That it got away from them so quickly had to add to the frustration. Creighton led for over 15 minutes of the first half, and by as many as 10 points. In taking a 19-9 lead, they got four straight buckets from Ballock; he and Ty-Shon Alexander combined to shoot 4-of-8 from three-point range in the first half. They made just one the rest of the way.
For Providence, they’re still alive — barely. They’re 6-4 with a favorable schedule over their final eight regular season games. But with their non-conference struggles, they can’t afford to lose any more games.
“There is no tomorrow,” Providence head coach Ed Cooley said in his press conference after the game. “We have to play desperate. Every game is a championship game. That’s where we’re at.”
Creighton, meanwhile, squandered a golden opportunity. They’re also 6-4 in the league, but combined with Villanova’s loss at Butler, could have moved into second place in the league with a win. Instead they’re in a four-way tie for third, their hopes of competing for a regular season title are probably over, and their NET ranking plummeted from 14 to 22. They had an outside shot of hearing their name called this weekend when the NCAA Tournament selection committee reveals the top 16 teams in the current bracket; there’s almost zero chance of that now.
On the other hand, five of their final eight games are at home, and if this loss is an isolated incident instead of the start of another February swoon, they’re still well-positioned for a favorable finish.
“We haven’t had many stinkers on the year,” McDermott said. “San Diego State was one, and the second half tonight. Other than that we’ve played pretty good basketball. Tonight we didn’t play well in the second half and Providence deserves the lion’s share of the credit for that.”